Bitten

Decisions, Pt. 2

Riley stood in the doorway of her dorm. She stared inside, her eyes slowly wondering over the now empty room. It had taken a long few days of very hard thinking, but finally her decision was that she had to leave. Staying in this place any longer was sure to be a bad idea. Her movements had been slowed and almost robotic as she packed all her belongings into the three, plain traveling trunks she owned. The entire process was sickening and pained Riley to the point where she was surprised that she hadn't cried.

The room was now bare and seemed to carry a cold draft. She had mailed the trunks to her vault at Gringotts. There were a select few things inside of the vault, and it seemed almost a mockery to her dorm. A heavy sigh left her body deflated and tired. How had everything turned out this way? Very slowly, she pulled her black hoodie over her body and wrapped her black and yellow scarf around her neck. In the days she had been packing, the weather had turned chilly with the springtime frost. She took one last long look at her room, her stomach in knots. But she squeezed her eyes shut tightly to keep the burning tears at bay and turned away. The hollow click of the latch echoed in the empty room as the last sliver of light disappeared from the doorway.

~X~

Draco shivered and looked around. He was alone in the small study room off the library. His eyes fell on the open window that had sheer white curtains framing it. The thin fabric billowed gently as a cold breeze pushed through the window. Another shiver passed through Draco's body. He wrapped his green and silver scarf around his neck. The chair he was in gave a groan as he stood from it's wooden frame. The Slytherin boy walked over to the window to close it when his eyes fell over a figure slowly walking through the gardens. He noticed the black and yellow scarf wrapped around their neck and the leggings that came out from under the wool skirt. What was a Hufflepuff girl doing walking around? Of course, why shouldn't a student be walking around the school grounds? But something felt wrong and stiff about the way they were moving. Draco's eyes continued to follow them as a bitter gust of wind blew across the campus. The curtains fluttered wildly and the wind stung at Draco's eyes. He looked back out to the garden and saw the wind had blown the person's hood down. They had chin length blonde hair that fell straight and almost looked like silver. His heart stopped momentarily in his chest.

"Riley," he whispered. A feeling a dread rooted itself in the pit of his stomach. He turned on his heels and hurried from the room.

~X~

Riley struggled to place the hood back on her head as the wind continued to blow madly. It was a moment or two before the wind died back down. A frown had made its way to her lips. What was the deal with the weather? One moment it was just slightly miserable, then the next there were crazy gusts of bitter northern winds. She sighed and replaced her hood on her head, returning to the heat that seemed to fail to get under her skin. After she took another breath, she began to walk forward once again. The weather was a harsh reminder of the future that awaited her. Would it be better for her to just let all of her emotions go? To Riley, she was beginning to think that it was just useless to keep thinking things would be going her way at any point in her life. A firm grip on her upper arm made her gasp. She looked back to see who had stopped her and her heart fell in to her stomach.

"Draco," she breathed, her words exiting as white steam that quickly disappeared in to the air. The visual of his quick breaths made her realize he had been running to catch up with her.

"Where are you going?" He panted, still trying to catch his breath. She looked in to his grey eyes, her stomach slowly churning.

"I'm going away," she finally whispered after a moment. Her slate blue eyes were forced to look down. She couldn't bring herself to look at him anymore.